New Paul's Guitar Limited

In addition to creating our core line of instruments, PRS has a team of highly talented, seasoned guitar makers crafting instruments known as “Private Stock.”

Paul Reed Smith says it best here: “The goal of Private Stock is not only to create the most beautiful and best playing guitar money can buy, but the best sounding. We work very closely with each order - through hourly discussions, experimentation, meticulous checks of every detail at each step in the process and making final tweaks when the guitar is complete - to make sure we are building the best guitars possible. If you get an extraordinary instrument from Private Stock that is equally as good as a family heirloom and a musician’s tool to make a living on, we have done our job.”

In the Spring of 2013, the Private Stock team built a limited run of one of our core line instruments, Paul’s Guitar.

In this interview, we sit down with Paul Miles, the Director of Private Stock, to get an inside look on the Paul’s Guitar Limited built by the Private Stock team.

LH: So, I understand that PRS did a limited run of the Paul’s Guitar model. When did the team start taking orders for this build?
PM: We started taking orders this February, did production in March, and took our last orders in May. The total run is 50 guitars.
LH: Can you explain what makes this limited run so exciting?
PM: Well, we came out with the Paul’s Guitar at NAMM 2013 in January. These Core guitars were instantly very popular, and Paul [Reed Smith] thought it would be cool to do a Private Stock run so we could take that instrument and really have no boundaries. The Private Stock Paul’s Guitar Limiteds have the highest grade Private Stock wood; some of them are made with Private Stock grade Brazilian rosewood, the bird inlays on the necks have 14 karat gold brushed onto them, and we used mammoth ivory for the inlays.
LH: Mammoth ivory? Where do you find that?
PM: Siberia and Alaska. People dig it up and you can buy it because it’s, you know, prehistoric. It’s not like you killed a mammoth to get that ivory.
LH: Wow. That’s crazy. So, the buyer of this kind of guitar would be a professional player, right?
PM: Not necessarily. The guitars play really well–like, amazingly well–but not only musicians buy them. A lot of the guys who buy them are men aged thirty-five, fifty-five, or sixty years old who want an heirloom or a beautiful piece of art. Private Stock guitars are really high-end; definitely not for smashing on stage and the end of your gig.
LH: Okay, got it. Thanks so much for sitting down and talking with us!
PM: No problem, man.

See more photos of Paul’s Guitar Limited!